Smoking/Transcript
Transcript Original Text reads: The Mysteries of Life with Tim and Moby Moby finds a pack of cigarettes on the sidewalk. He picks them up and inspects them. Tim reprimands Moby. TIM: Moby, what are you doing? MOBY: Beep. TIM: Don't you know how awful cigarettes are for you? MOBY: Beep. He gestures to indicate that he just found them lying on the ground. TIM: Well, you really shouldn't be messing around with those things. Tim reads from a typed letter. TIM: Dear Tim and Moby, my brother smokes and I want him to stop. Can you give me some facts about smoking? From, Sarah. Well, let's see. Smoking gives you bad breath, makes you cough, and stinks up your whole life. It can often lead to deadly illnesses like emphysema, lung cancer and heart disease. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Well, cigarettes are made of a plant called tobacco. An image shows a field of tobacco. TIM: And hundreds of chemicals, including nicotine, tar, ammonia, and para-methoxybenzaldehyde. An image shows a skull and crossbones. The names of the chemicals Tim lists appear as text over the image. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Yeah, I don't know what that is, either. Your lungs have a job to do: they're supposed to take in oxygen and distribute it to the rest of your body. An animation shows a silhouette of a person smoking a cigarette. The person's lungs are visible. TIM: Inhaling smoke instead of air damages the cells in your lungs. The lungs in the animation become dark as the person continues to smoke. TIM: The tar in cigarettes literally coats your lungs, turning them black over time. It becomes hard to breathe and it's more difficult for the lungs to distribute oxygen. So, among other problems, smokers suffer from shortness of breath and muscle cramps during sports. An animation shows a soccer player on a field. There is a pack of cigarettes on the ground near his feet. He tries to catch his breath as the soccer ball bounces past him. TIM: Over time, some of these damaged lung cells can become cancerous. An animation shows rows of dirty lung cells. One of the cells becomes green and starts to bulge out. TIM: In fact, smoking is the number one cause of lung cancer. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Nicotine is a highly addictive chemical that's found in cigarettes. Nicotine narrows your blood vessels and puts added strain on your heart, causing all sorts of coronary problems. An animation shows a blood vessel, which constricts in the way Tim describes. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Well, because nicotine is so addictive, it's really hard to quit smoking once you've started. An image shows a single cigarette. More cigarettes appear one by one, representing addiction. The cigarettes turn into a line of roaring flames. TIM: It's a drug: anyone who starts smoking is at high risk of not being able to stop. The flames burn away and disappear. TIM: I know it stinks, but you can't force someone to stop smoking. People have to decide to quit on their own. But that doesn't mean you can't help! If someone in your life smokes, let them know you care about them, and that you're worried, and that you want them to be around for a long time. MOBY: Beep. Moby looks down at the pack of cigarettes he is holding. He frowns. TIM: Yeah, you should, you should get rid of those. Moby drops the cigarettes on the ground and jumps up and down on them angrily. Update Text reads: The Mysteries of Life with Tim and Moby Tim and Moby pull up to a gas station in their car. Voltaire is in the back seat. VOLTAIRE: Beaup. TIM: A carton of cigarettes?! I don't know how they do things in France, mister, but here in America, we have rules about kids buying those. Tim pulls out a typed letter and reads from it. TIM: Dear Tim and Moby, My brother smokes, and I want him to stop. Can you give me some facts about smoking? From, Sarah. Well, let's see. Smoking causes deadly illnesses like emphysema, lung cancer, and heart disease. It ups your chances of getting sick and injured, slows you down in sports, it gives you bad breath, makes you cough, and stinks up your whole life. And it exposes your friends and family to dangerous secondhand smoke. Tim counts out the facts on his fingers. Icons representing each fact appear as he describes them. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Well, cigarettes are made of a plant called tobacco, plus hundreds of other substances. An animation shows the image of a cigarette. The image of a tobacco plant appears next to it. TIM: Like ammonia, a harsh chemical used in cleaning products. An image of a spray bottle of ammonia appears. TIM: Cadmium, a toxic metal that's common in rechargeable batteries. An image of a battery appears. TIM: And formaldehyde, which is used to preserve dead bodies. None of these are things you want inside your lungs. An image of a dead cockroach in a jar of formaldehyde appears. TIM: Some "natural" cigarette brands have no additives, but they're still terrible for you. A pack of natural cigarettes appears on screen, and then disappears. TIM: That's because when you burn tobacco, the smoke contains thousands of other chemicals. Dozens of them are carcinogenic: known to cause cancer. A device lights the cigarette and causes it to release smoke. The smoke forms the shape of a skull and crossbones. A pop-out bubble magnifies the smoke to show its chemical compounds. MOBY: Beep! TIM: Yeah, I don't know why they're even legal. Cigarettes stop your lungs from doing their job. They're supposed to take in oxygen so it can be carried to the rest of your body. An animation shows a pair of lungs with arms and legs running through a park. TIM: But tobacco smoke contains a substance called tar. It's a sticky mixture of those dangerous chemicals we talked about. Tar damages the cells in your lungs, making it harder to breathe. Tobacco smoke fills the air around the lungs. The lungs turn gray and can't run as quickly. Tar builds up on the ground and gets stuck to the lungs so they can't run. TIM: Over time, that damage can develop into cancer. In fact, smoking is the number-one cause of lung cancer. But it's not just your lungs that are at risk. An animation shows the gray lungs holding hands at the doctor's office. The doctor diagnoses the lungs with cancer. TIM: Smoking damages your circulatory system and heart. It's one of the leading causes of heart disease! An animation shows a heart with arms and a face seated at a table. It has turned gray from smoking damage. TIM: It also harms your skin... eyes... and liver. Pretty much every major organ in the body is damaged by smoking. The animation shows the skin, eyes, and liver seated at the table. They are all gray from smoking damage, and the eyes are bloodshot. MOBY: Beep? TIM: Well, people start smoking for all kinds of reasons. They may think it makes them look cool, or do it because their friends or family members smoke. An animation shows a healthy brain and heart walking past a store. The advertisement in the window shows a brain wearing a cowboy hat smoking a cigarette. The advertisement makes the cowboy brain look very cool. The healthy brain takes the heart by the hand and pulls it into the store to buy cigarettes. TIM: But once someone starts, it's really, really hard to quit. The reason for that is a drug in tobacco called nicotine. After it's inhaled, nicotine triggers the release of adrenaline. That's a chemical your body produces in scary or exciting situations. An animation shows the healthy heart and brain sitting on a park bench. The brain smokes a cigarette and offers it to the heart. Pop-up windows show the chemical compounds for nicotine and adrenaline. TIM: Adrenaline makes the heart beat faster, which increases blood pressure. Doing that over and over, every day, is not good for the heart. An animation shows the heart beating quickly. TIM: But this little adrenaline rush makes smokers feel alert and stimulated. An animation shows the brain waving its arms with excitement. TIM: Nicotine also triggers chemicals that make people feel relaxed. Smokers begin to rely on cigarettes to experience those feelings. The brain puts on sunglasses and reclines with its arms behind its head. TIM: They become addicted, which means they're unable to stop. At the same time, they develop a tolerance to nicotine. They need to use more and more of it to get the same pleasurable effects. An animation shows the brain waking up in bed. It is now gray and looks very tired. It reaches over to its nightstand to light a cigarette. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Well, when smokers try to quit, they usually experience withdrawal. An animation shows the brain throwing away a packet of cigarettes. The brain stomps them into the trash can. TIM: They can feel irritable, anxious, hungry, and restless. They may struggle to concentrate or go to sleep. An animation shows the brain watching TV late at night. It wrings its hands and cannot focus on the show. TIM: People who stop smoking successfully usually need a lot of support. That's why it's way easier to just not start in the first place! The brain pulls a cigarette covered in garbage out of the trash can. He wipes off the goo and smokes it anyway. VOLTAIRE: Beaup? Voltaire shows an electronic cigarette package, labeled "Kuul," to Tim. TIM: Yeah, electronic cigarettes, or e-cigarettes, contain nicotine, too. They were first sold as a way to quit smoking. The idea is that over time, you switch to ones with less and less nicotine. Eventually you switch to a nicotine-free version, and voila, you're not addicted anymore! The brain holds a flyer describing the amount nicotine in the e-cigarettes. Week 1 contains 16 mg of nicotine, Week 2 contains 8 mg, Week 3 contains 4 mg, and Week 4 contains no nicotine at all. TIM: Unfortunately, these devices haven't been all that successful in getting people to quit cigarettes. If anything, they've become another way for people to get addicted to nicotine! They come in kid-friendly flavors like fruit or candy. And the ads often claim that they're a safe alternative to cigarettes. An animation shows a kid brain running through a grocery store. He skids to a halt in front of an e-cigarette display. He looks at the e-cigarettes with stars in his eyes. TIM: But as we've seen, nicotine puts stress on the circulatory system. That's why chewing tobacco isn't a safe option, either. It contains all the nicotine of cigarettes, plus an added risk of mouth and gum cancers. An animation shows a brain chewing tobacco and playing baseball. He pitches the ball and smiles. His teeth are severely damaged from the chewing tobacco. MOBY: Beep? TIM: It know it stinks, but you can’t force someone to stop smoking. People have to decide to quit on their own. But that doesn't mean you can't help! If someone in your life smokes, let them know that you care about them, and that you're worried about their health. An animation shows the tired smoking brain trudging home from work. TIM: You can write them a note, or show them this movie, if that makes it easier to get the conversation going. The brain opens the front door to his house and is shocked to find the other organs in his living room. They are sitting below a banner that says, "Intervention." The heart holds a tablet with the BrainPOP Smoking movie. TIM: It's really hard to break free of an addiction on your own. Fortunately, there's all kinds of help for those who want to quit, like books with detailed strategies for breaking the nicotine habit. An animation shows the brain reading a book about quitting smoking. TIM: Groups where ex-smokers meet to give each other support. An animation shows a group of brains sitting in a circle. They discuss their struggles with quitting. TIM: And medicines that can help with those nicotine cravings. An animation shows the brain sitting in the doctor's office wearing a hospital gown. TIM: It can take a few weeks or even a few months to quit for good. But the good news is that once you stop, your body immediately starts repairing the damage. An animation shows the brain playing in the park with the other organs. They all look healthy again. MOBY: Beep! TIM: Right: if you're trying to quit smoking, remember that you don't have to do it alone. Talk to a parent or another adult you trust. It's not the easiest thing to admit, but trust me: they'll be happier knowing that you're trying to stop. An animation shows an angry Voltaire approaching Tim and Moby. VOLTAIRE: Beaup! TIM: Um, no, I don't think that's the best idea— VOLTAIRE: Beaup! Voltaire angrily knocks the boxes of e-cigarettes off the shelf. He stomps the boxes into the ground. Tim and Moby slowly sneak away. The store exit bell rings as Voltaire continues to destroy the boxes. Category:BrainPOP Transcripts